End of season party scheduled for next Wednesday 2nd of June

Because of the under 12 girls being in the final this weekend we have decided to postpone the end of season party to Wednesday next (2nd/June). This will be at the normal training time. Hopefully we will have a lovely trophy to add to the celebrations.

We need to get the player of the year votes and the €10 contributions in advance of the party. Hopefully everyone can bring them along to the cup final tomorrow.

Arrangements for the cup final

As reported on the club web site we qualified for the cup final again this year by beating Mount Merrion 2-0. Like last year our opponents will be WFTA. Kick off is at 11am on Saturday (not Sunday as originally announced). The final will be held in Pearse Park in Salynoggin, this is quite a distance away so we will meet up at 9:45 beside the all-weather pitches.

I am quietly confident that we can win the title this year. Hopefully we will have a full turn out of players and supporters.

Playing Mount Merrion in the Semi-Final of the cup

I just found out that we will be playing Mount Merrion in the semi-final of the cup. It will be a home match for us with kick-off at 6:45pm on Wednesday 26th of May. This will be a very tough match since Mount Merrion had a 100% record in the league (they were the only team to beat us).  I hope we can have a great turn out for this match since we will need to have a full strength team for this vital match.

Castleknock edge past Dundalk in tightly fought cup quarter final.

We knew from our experience in the league that Dundalk FC would be tough opponents for our cup quarter final match. Dundalk started very strongly and managed to get into an early lead with  a goal after 10 minutes. Castleknock fought back strongly and our player-of-the-match Aoibheann Lynch levelled the scores after 15 minutes. Unfortunately Dundalk hit back again with another goal shortly before half-time to leave the score at 2-1 going into the half-time.

Both sides had several chances in the second half, but when 22 minutes had passed without any more scores it looked like the match was going to end with a 2-1 victory for Dundalk. Then Leah Byrne brought the game back to life when she tapped home a cross from Aoibheann to level the scores at 2-2. The last few minutes of the match were very exciting with both sides attacking very strongly. Everyone was assuming that the match would go into extra time when Ciara Brady managed to connect with a corner and tap the ball into the Dundalk net.

It must have been a very sad bunch of players on the bus back to Dundalk, but at least they can be proud of the way they played in this very exciting match.

Decisive victory in match against Lucan United.

There was a lot at stake as we lined out against Lucan United since this match was counting as both a league and a cup match at the same time. Lucan turned up without a full team and so we agreed to play 7-a-side. Castleknock started very strongly when Ciara Brady scored a hat-trick within the first 10 minutes. Laura and Emma got the scoresheet shortly afterwards and then Aoibheann added 2 more goals to make the score 7-0 at half time.

Lucan were not disheartened by being behind and came out much stronger for the second half. In the first half Ellie had a very quiet time in goals, but Hayley who replaced her for teh second half was much busier and had to make some very dramatic saves. Nevertheless our forwards were also very busy attacking. Ellie made up for her quiet first half by scoring two goals before coming off with an injured hand. Laura stretched the lead to 10-0 and Lucan scored an own-goal before Lucy Hanlon closed off the scoring at 12-0.

This now completes our league fixtures. I don't know where we came yet because many of the other teams have not yet completed all their games. However, with such great results we are certain to be near the top. Our next cup match will be against Dundalk FC who beat Ratoath last night in their first round match.

Final League match and start of cup campaign

On Wednesday evening we will play host to Lucan United. This match will kick off at the slightly earlier time than usual of 6:15pm which means that we will need to meet up at Porterstown at 6pm to get ready. This will be the last match of our league campaign (where it looks likely that we will be in second place) and the match will also count as the first round of our cup campaign.

Decisive 5-1 victory over WFTA

It was a lovely summer evening when our old rivals WFTA came to Porterstown for a DWSL league match. Initially the match started off very level, with both Castleknock and WFTA having several scoring chances. However, after 24 minutes Ciara dribbled most of the length of the pitch before launching a rocket of a shot. The WFTA keeper saved the initial shot, but she wasn't able to hold onto the ball and Laura was on hand to slot the ball into the back of the net to give Castleknock a narrow lead. Shortly afterwards Laura had another narrow miss, but the score stayed at 1-0 at half time.

Castleknock came out much more strongly for the second half. Our goalie Dani kicked a long ball to Aoibheann who dribbled the ball into the box and unleashed a great shot. The WFTA keeper was not able to hold onto the ball and once again Laura was on hand to stretch out lead to 2-0. About 2 minutes later Laura scored again to earn her a hat trick and the title of player-of-the-match.

WFTA did their best to get back into the game, but Dani was in top form in the Castleknock goal and they only managed to score a single goal to bring the socre back to 3-1. Towards the end of the match, Leah and Ciara got a goal each to stretch the lead to 5-1 to put the result beyond doubt.

DWSL Cup Draw announced

I have just received notification of the draw for the DWSL under 12 shield. In the first round we are drawn against Lucan United at home. Kick-off is at 6:45pm on Wednesday next 12th of May. Click here to see the full draw.

Castleknock under 12 girls are runners-up in the Enniskerry "Belles in the Meadow" Blitz

It was a beautiful sunny day when we travelled to Enniskerry for the Belles in the Meadow blitz competition. Due to the early start the girls were still rubbing the sleep out of their eyes as we lined out against Valeview in our first match. However, Emma proved that she was fully awake when she opened the scoring after only 2 minutes. After  6 minutes Aoibheann stretched the lead to 2-0 and then Emma scored again to give us a 3-0 lead at half time. Immediately after the restart Aoibheann socred again to make it 4-0. As the match was ending Laura polished off a great result with a goal that took the score to 5-0.

Our second match was against Firhouse Carmel. Ciara gave us the lead after 7 minutes and then Aoibheann made it 2-0 a minute later. In the second half Aoibheann put her name on the score-sheet again and stretched the lead to 3-0.

Our final match in the group stages was against St Catherines who proved to be the strongest opposition. Emma gave us an early lead, but St Catherines replied straight away to level the score to 1-1. A few minutes later Ciara hit a great shot which rebounded off the keeper and then Ellie put it in the back of the net. Both Ellie and Aoibheann has several near misses but the score was still 2-1 at half time. St Catherines attacked strongly in the second half, but Lucy and Catherine were very strong in defence. Our goalkeeper Dani was also very busy , but luckily for us she was in top form. It was very tight in second half until Aoibheann dribbled the length of the pitch and scoeed a gaol to put the score at 3-1 and seal the top of the table position for us.

In the semi-final we were drawn against the host team Enniskerry. Castleknock dominated the possession in the first half, but the ball didn't seem to want to go into the net and hence the score was still 0-0 at half time. When the second hald started Castleknock seemed to hit their stride. Ellie put us into the lead straight from the kick-off and Ciara followed up with another goal to make the score 2-0. Aoibheann was in flying form and scored a hat-trick to give us a 5 goal lead. Catherine was keen to get in on the act and added a final goal to make the score 6-0.

We had only a few minutes break before we had to come out to face Mount Merrion in the Final. Our tired legs began to show and after 4 minutes Mount Merrion went into the lead. Castleknock attacked strongly for the rest of the match and Emma hit the post several times, but the Mount Merrion defence held firm and the match ended with a 1-0 victory to Mount Merrion.

Overall I think it was a great day out and everyone enjoyed the sunshine and the disco music that was playing all day long. We can be very proud of this result and I think we will definitely be back again when this competition is held next year.

Gaynor Cup Trials

The following notice was placed on the NDSL web site about the start of trials for the Gaynor cup. It seems that training has already commenced, but I am sure Carlie will allow late entry if anyone is interested:

Trials for the girls North Dublin Gaynor Cup will commence on Sunday 18^th April on the All Weather pitch at the Oscar Traynor Centre Coolock. U/14 Girls (1996-1997) will start at 3.30pm.Girls born in 1998 or 1999 are not eligible to participate. U/16 Girls (1994-1995) will commence at 5.30pm. All attending must have a full Soccer kit including boots and shinguards. All clubs who wish to send players forward for the trials are requested to submit players and managers details no later than Wednesday 14^th April to carliefitz@eircom.net